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Instagram Just Gave You One Less Reason To Use Camera+
Feb 11, 7:59AM
Photosharing app Instagram went through a subtle redesign this afternoon and in addition to the brand new "Sierra" filter, Notifications improvements and a UI/UX refresh where the feed, popular, share and news buttons have all been divorced of their copy and are now just streamlined symbols, the company has added the "Lux" button.Zynga Marketing Master Padma Rao Joins Foundation Capital As An Entrepreneur In Residence
Feb 11, 2:31AM
Padma Rao's analytical marketing skills have made a big impact at more than one company in the Bay Area, and now she's bringing a decade of experiences to her new role as an entrepreneur in residence at Foundation Capital. Her most recent efforts helped turn a gaming startup into a booming public company. Few people realized it at the time, but in late 2008 and early 2009 social game developer Zynga had figured out how to get a great return on investment from Facebook advertising. The social network had developed its ad system over the previous few years to the point that it was able to deliver ads closely targeted to users' interests -- but most people hadn't realized that yet, so prices were cheap.Busta Rhymes Waxes Enthusiastic On Google Music
Feb 11, 1:56AM
When Google Music launched a couple months ago, there was some criticism regarding how the service was promoted. What many saw as just another music locker and streaming service (albeit a perfectly good and free one) others saw as a great new vector for music sales and distribution. But the music locker portion seemed to hog the spotlight, and the cool Band Camp-esque new artist hubs lurked in the gloom. Busta Rhymes seems to be a fan of the latter, and not just because he's in an official partnership. In an interview on MTV, he was positively effusive about Google's new platform. Check out the short clip inside.Whale Hunting: Facebook Hooks 1st-Time Buyers With $5 Of Game Credits For $1
Feb 11, 1:16AM
Only about 5% Facebook gamers pay to play freemium games. If Facebook could up this percentage, it and its third-party app developers could make a lot more money. That's the idea behind a new promotion Facebook announced today where those who've never bought Facebook Credits virtual currency before will be offered $4 in free Credits when they buy $1. This gets users to set up their credit card and experience the rush of paying for an enhanced gaming experience.Kickstarter's Big Day: $1.6M Pledged In 24 Hours
Feb 10, 11:15PM
They say when it rains, it pours. That's not usually a good thing, but when it's raining money, things are a little different. That was the case at Kickstarter yesterday, where they had their biggest day of funding ever, beating the record set... the day before yesterday. It was also the day that marked the first Kickstarter project to break $1,000,000 in funding. And the day that marked the second project to hit that number. And New York's city council endorsed the site as a way to highlight community projects that need funding. Oh, and they're on Portlandia. Definitely the biggest day in the site's history, then. They've commemorated it with a great blog post that might just make your Friday a little better. It also brings up a few new and interesting questions regarding how the site should or will be used.Look Out AT&T Customers, Your Upgrade Fee Doubles On Sunday
Feb 10, 11:03PM
If you're an AT&T customer coming off of a contract and looking to snap up a new phone, you should get on that right now. According to an AT&T memo obtained by BGR, AT&T will be raising their device upgrade fee from $18 to $36 as of February 12, which means you've got until Sunday to swap phones before your first post-upgrade bill gets even bigger. The memo states that the fee hike is needed because "the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased."New Hybrid Solar Cells Harness More Of The Sun's Light Spectrum
Feb 10, 9:38PM
Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK have found a way to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells by as much as 25% through harnessing more of the sun's spectrum than most traditional silicon-based solar cells can.StartX Demo Day: A Direct Link Between Silicon Valley And Top Stanford Student Entrepreneurs
Feb 10, 9:28PM
On the surface, the StartX Demo Day last night could have looked like any other accelerator pushing its latest class of startups. Nine groups got on stage and fired off presentations about how they were working on something cool, and why they deserved funding. But it wasn't the rash of lightweight consumer applications you often see at other demo days. These were Stanford students, particularly technical graduate students, who have been nerding out on solving real problems for years in their labs and dorm rooms, and who are now in the middle of commercializing their hard work. Big-name investors from around Silicon Valley unsurprisingly showed up to check them out.The Government Wants To Build An App Store For Real-Life Jack Bauers
Feb 10, 9:19PM
The US Department of Defense Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit is look for a few good coders to help build apps and an entire app store for bomb technicians and soldiers involved in ordnance handling. This is when sliding to unlock could mean the difference between life or death. The request for proposals is as dull as dirt (you can read it hear) but the requirements are clear: they're looking for apps that will replace paper pocket guides and references used by the folks that blow up the big badda booms.Gillmor Gang Live 02.10.12 (TCTV)
Feb 10, 9:00PM
Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, Steve Gillmor, John Borthwick, and Kevin Marks. Recording has concluded.Air Force Could Buy Thousands Of iPads And Android Tablets
Feb 10, 8:41PM
The Air Force's Air Mobility Command will be putting in a request for the purchase of a number of tablets soon in an effort to lighten their pilots' loads. Many commercial airlines are already taking this step, and American Airlines has already gotten FAA approval. The Air Force is feeling the sting of jealousy, and in consequence may be requesting as many as 18,000 devices.For And Against The iPad Mini
Feb 10, 8:30PM
Rumors of a 7- to 7.85-inch iPad have been swirling around for a long while now. We've seen reports get killed moments after they initially break, only to be sneakily resurrected weeks or months later. The rumor simply won't die. The problem, however, is that this one in particular is a tough nut to crack. When you take all the evidence both for and against a little iPad, you're still left with no real conclusion. So conclusion aside, here are some of the reasons Apple may, or may not, introduce the little iPad:I Wanna Be On The StartupBus…So Freakin' Bad (Video)
Feb 10, 8:14PM
Just a little candy to kick off your weekend: Looking to get its state on the StartupBus radar, a group of Lousiana's innovators met with founder Elias Bizannes this week for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber's February Innovation Take-Out. After Bizannes' presentation (which he concluded by announcing the first Louisiana StartupBus!), the members of the local tech community unveiled this parody video: "I Wanna Be On The Startup Bus." And yeah, it's pretty cute, guys. Plus, it's always good to see the excitement for building startups outside NY and the Valley.
VEVO CEO Tries To Explain Their Hypocritical Act Of Piracy At Sundance
Feb 10, 7:54PM
Yesterday I reported on a bizarre incident I witnessed at Sundance last month: VEVO, the music portal owned by some of the biggest record labels in the US, had a pirated NFL playoff game playing on screens throughout its 'PowerStation' venue. The incident was immensely hypocritical, given that VEVO is owned in part by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment (with EMI licensing its content to the service) — the same music labels that have made a habit of attacking consumers over alleged acts of piracy. Now VEVO CEO Rio Caraeff has written a post to the VEVO blog, where he tries to explain what happend. In it, he writes that the game was accessed and streamed by a guest of the event without VEVO's knowledge.New Android App Lets You Flashback To The Arcades Of Yesteryear
Feb 10, 7:50PM
The arcade scene here in the United States is but a fraction of what it was back in its heyday, but that doesn't mean that the love for those classic games has just evaporated. Capcom's CPS2 arcade board has attained legend status in certain retro gaming circles because of its catalog of instant classics, and a developer named Cpasjuste has just given those games a new lease on life with a new CPS2 emulator for Android.2011 API Trends: Government APIs Quintuple; Facebook, Google, Twitter Most Popular
Feb 10, 7:21PM
Online directory of APIs and mashups, ProgrammableWeb, just hit a big milestone this week: 5,000 APIs listed. The site has a long history of tracking the API landscape, starting with the launch of its directory back in 2005, five years after eBay created the first web API. Not surprisingly, big names like Google, Facebook and Twitter are now leading the way in terms of sheer numbers of APIs offered, usage, and popularity. Among developers tracking APIs on the site, Facebook now has the most popular API, and it's followed by Google Maps and Twitter. However, according to ProgrammableWeb executive editor Adam DuVander, there were some new trends spotted among the last 1,000 APIs added to the directory, too, including an increasing number of government APIs becoming available.Review: Benarus Megalodon Diving Watch
Feb 10, 5:23PM
I rarely like to put my own little fetishistic watch reviews up here unless the watch is something amazingly unique or unless I think you, dear reader, will get a kick out of the quality or styling of a particular piece. That's why I chose to write up this Benarus Megalodon Diving Watch, a huge monster of a timepiece that is water resistant to 2,500 meters or about 8,000 feet. Considering the deepest SCUBA dive was 330 meters while the deepest ADS dive was 610 meters, I doubt you'll make it down to 2.5 kilometers in one piece. Barring improbable diving capabilities, why is the Megalodon so cool? Well first it has a self-winding automatic ETA 2824-2 movement with date window and sweep seconds hand as well as a case the size of a small apple. The case and band are made entirely of titanium and so are surprisingly light and wearable although there were some fit and finish issues with the clasp and bezel.OpenLabel Exits Stealth, Raises $80K To Turn Barcodes Into Public Labels
Feb 10, 4:36PM
OpenLabel, a startup that wants to augment everyday products' barcodes with crowd-sourced information that helps you decide whether to buy, has raised $80,000 in seed funding in a round led by Peter Kirwan, also an investor in IFTTT. Also participating in the round were Tim Drees and Doug Taylor. According to OpenLabel co-founder Scott Kennedy, this $80K is just the first part of a larger $300,000 seed round, which the company expects to close prior to the April launch of the mobile application.Y Combinator-Backed Crowdtilt Launches To Become The "Kickstarter For Any Group"
Feb 10, 4:31PM
Inherently, we like doing things in groups, as it makes our experiences more social. It's not about what we're doing so much as who we're doing it with that makes our experiences enjoyable. Group messaging took off two years ago, overrunning SXSW, as a better way to keep groups of people engaged; Kickstarter has grown like a week thanks to the power of the crowd lending legs to fledgling projects that need quick capital to get off the ground. A new startup launching today called Crowdtilt is taking a page out of Kickstarter's book, riffing on "crowdfunding," but instead choosing to call itself "groupfunding" or a "Kickstarter for groups of friends."A Whole Lot Of Reading: Social Publisher Wattpad Hits 1B User Minutes Per Month
Feb 10, 4:02PM
Wattpad, a Union Square Ventures-backed platform for sharing stories and interacting with writers, has been growing steadily, and it hit a nice milestone in January — during that month, users spent more than 1 billion minutes on the service. Co-founder and CEO Allen Lau tells me via email that the growth comes from a combination of attracting new users and convincing each of those users to spend more time on the site. The average session for Web users was 30 minutes, while visitors on Android devices spent an average of 28 minutes.If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
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